Do you consider Maltese an Arabic dialect?

No. Maltese is a separate language which evolved from Siculo-Arabic and was influenced by Arabic, however, it is not an Arabic dialect. It is just “Maltese”. Siculo-Arabic was an Arabic dialect which was spoken on Sicily, but died out on the island while it evolved into Maltese on Malta. read more

I don’t know much about Maltese, but with what I’ve read about it from other answers, I wouldn’t consider it a dialect of Arabic. It’s sort of like a French speaker hearing English. Yes, there are lots of similar words, but you can only really get the gist of what’s being said because of the influences of other languages. read more